As the ability and speed with which consumers may access and/or obtain electronically distributed digital content grows, so too does consumer demand for such content. In response, device manufacturers and content providers have attempted to continually improve existing digital content rendering products that typically execute on what are referred to as playback devices. These playback devices may be portable in nature (as represented by a wireless mobile phone) or they may be fixed in nature (as represented by a desktop computer).
Consumers may obtain or otherwise access digital content in a number of ways including downloading and streaming digital content to a playback device. Downloading generally refers to the act of copying a file from one location or source to another where execution or rendering of the file data only begins after the entire file has been received. Streaming on the other hand generally refers to the transmission of data from one device or location to another where the data can start to be displayed, rendered, or otherwise executed before the entire data file has been transmitted.
Due to the amount of time it often takes to download large multimedia data files such as digital audio and/or video tracks, content providers typically opt to stream digital content to consumers. In order for streaming to work well, the client device receiving the data should be able to collect the data and send it as a steady stream to the appropriate processing logic equipped to convert the data to sound and/or pictures. For example, if the data doesn't come quickly enough, however, the presentation of the data might appear jittery and disjointed. Conversely, if the streaming client receives the data more quickly than required, it should save the excess data in a buffer.
Unfortunately however, as digital content becomes more complex the more difficult it is to buffer such streamed data without a degradation in sound/image quality. For example, a given digital content item (also referred to as a presentation) may contain multiple concurrent streams of time sensitive data arriving from one or more sources. Accordingly, an improved method and apparatus for recording and playback of such buffered presentations is desirable.